Do You Need Jesus?

If you ask a few people, “Do you need Jesus” what would they say? You would probably hear the reply, “No, I’m good, thanks.” I suspect that people seeing their need for Jesus is at an all-time low. Few people see a need for Jesus in their life. In our increasingly secular age, people find the meaning and purpose they need in their life in the imminent domain of their immediate context and moment.

People may be independent but people also seem increasingly needy. How do you know if you are a needy person? Needy people constantly need to be around someone. They usually look for someone who will approve of what they are doing. They need others to affirm their decisions or assure them they are right. Their needs usually seem to take center stage and they are often jealous of others with competing needs. They also need to keep moving and make sure there is always some background noise. They must avoid stillness or silence. That is the contradiction of our day as people are independent, individualistic, and needy.

In reality, we all have needs that cannot me satisfied in this world. No human can shoulder the weight of all your needs and expectations. For those whose fierce independence and self-sufficiency allows them to function with little need of others and no need for Jesus, that will one day change.

There are two things that one can expect to eventually wrestle with, disease and death. Everyone who makes it past their early twenties begins the slow descent of physical decline (metabolism, vision, back, energy, etc..). Everyone’s health will naturally decline as the years pass by and most will have to battle with sickness and disease. Regardless of the severity of the health challenges in a person’s life, we all will experience the loss of loved ones who have died before us and all will experience death. That is precisely what it means to be mortal.

In Luke 8:40-56, Jesus is confronted with people who have come to him in desperate need. They had exhausted all their human options and resources in battling the two mortal enemies of disease and death. They knew only Jesus could help.